The Warsaw Rising Museum announced her death in a social media post, saying it had learned “with great sorrow” that Znojewska had “gone on eternal guard.”
Krystian Kinastowski, mayor of the central city of Kalisz, also confirmed the news online and said she died on February 23.
Znojewska was born on August 15, 1922, in Warsaw. She completed secondary education in economics and worked at the Haberbusch and Schiele breweries.
During World War II she continued her studies through clandestine schooling, part of the underground education system developed under German occupation.
Kinastowski wrote that Znojewska was still a teenager when the war began. She recalled it as an event that “dramatically changed her life” and forced her into adulthood. He added that she rarely returned to the most painful memories from that period.
During the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, an armed revolt by the Polish underground Home Army against Nazi German occupation, she served as a medic and courier, using the pseudonyms “Alina” and “Wróbel.”
She maintained communications between Warsaw and the Dulag 121 (Durchgangslager 121) transit camp in Pruszków near the capital, shuttling into the Wola and Ochota districts under constant threat.
In August 1944 she was wounded near Narutowicz Square in Warsaw.
For her wartime service, Znojewska received a number of Polish honors, including the Home Army Cross, the Polish Army Medal twice, the Warsaw Uprising Cross, the Badge of the Veteran of the Struggle for Independence, and a commemorative badge for Operation Tempest, the Home Army’s nationwide campaign against German forces in 1944.
In 2022, she was awarded the Honorary Badge of the City of Kalisz.
Kinastowski said Znojewska was connected to Kalisz for 30 years and spent her final years at the city’s Care and Housing Center.
She was “surrounded by professional and warm care,” he wrote, and received many expressions of remembrance and goodwill. He described her as curious about the world, engaged, and open, with a love of literature and nature.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP